British Doctors Are Creating ‘designer Babies’, Free from Certain Cosmetic Defects
May 29th, 2007 by Faisal
Embryos are to be screened for a cosmetic defect for the first time in a British clinic. Doctors have been given permission to create a baby free from a genetic disorder which would have caused the child to have a severe squint.
British IVF doctors are focusing on vision problem in the unborn, means, they are screening embryos in order to check whether they are inheriting a squint genetically from parents or not.
If screening illustrates that the child would be born with visual problems, the embryo will be destroyed and a healthier one implanted into the mother-tobe’s womb.
Critics are of the view that such screenings is another step towards the creation of perfect ‘designer’ babies, which are made according to one’s desire, right from eye color to hair color.
Yet, scholars from the London Bridge fertility clinic, which is to carry out the pioneering procedure, say visual problems such as squints cannot always be corrected surgically and can cause sufferers severe emotional distress.
To reinforce the above statement, Professor Gedis Grudzinskas, has asserted that squint typically need several operations to correct it, however, the guarantee of success is very less.
Dr Simon Fishel has advocated the new procedure by saying that
If a family believe a condition is disfiguring enough to want to carry out embryo screening, then they should have access to this procedure.
The process:
It involves screening three-day-old embryos created through IVF and rooting out those that are genetically flawed.
Until recently, screening was carried out only for genes that invariably cause incurable diseases when inherited - such as those behind cystic fibrosis.
Specialists can now screen for genes that, while raising the risk of illness, do not always lead to the development of the condition. They can also look for embryos free of flaws that cause disease late in life.
The change has led to couples seeking to create babies free of the genes behind inherited breast cancer and a flaw that causes Alzheimer’s disease to develop earlier than usual.
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